BHP Billiton wants to pay more tax on its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia, asset president Darryl Cuzzubbo told an industry conference in Whyalla.

The mine paid $86 million to governments in the last financial year, he said.

“Those royalties and taxes are much more than the profit we made on Olympic Dam,” Mr Cuzzubbo said.

“But we actually want to pay more taxes and royalties because that would mean we’re making more money.”

Mr Cuzzubbo took charge of Olympic Dam in October 2012 and has been trying to make the existing mine more efficient and profitable at the same time as spearheading research on a revised open-pit expansion of the copper, uranium, gold and silver mine.

The initiative tackled three aspects – safety, production and costs.

Mr Cuzzubbo was talking in Whyalla at a conference co-hosted by the SA Chamber of Mines and Energy and industry cluster Global Maintenance Upper Spencer Gulf.

He revealed that BHP Billiton mines in Chile are operating with a better safety performance than Olympic Dam, with less than a third of the injury rate.

To check this was true, a delegation from SA visited South America and found a much stronger culture of safety awareness, he said.

He urged contractors, whose employees often were the ones who suffered injuries, to be more vigilant.

The mining side of Olympic Dam had reached record rates but work needed to be done on the processing side.

Costs had been contained and a profit reported after a big loss in 2012-13.

“We’ve put them through a hard time as we’ve reduced costs at Olympic Dam,” he said.

“A lot of our focus has been on how do we support local businesses in Roxby Downs through this tough period.

“Over the next 12 months we want to see what more we can do in the region.

“One of the specific things we can do is when we engage some of the large contracting firms we make sure they look at – from a sub-contracting perspective - what work can be done here.

“That’s important not just for now but because it sets us up for future success on the basis we do expand Olympic Dam.”

The two-day conference, now in its 10th year, attracted a record 380 delegates and 40 trade exhibitors.

In his first public speech since becoming chief executive of the Department State Development, Don Russell said the resources sector was rightfully one of the highest priorities in the government’s economic plan.

“There would be those who have only a fairly limited view of the contribution that the mining and energy sectors might make to the state, seeing it’s not much more than an investment phase followed by a few ongoing jobs and perhaps a royalty income stream,” he said.

“I see a much larger contribution.

“As a growing number of successful mines create a virtuous circle supporting an expanding array of industry-backed research initiatives along with exploration and mining service companies.

“These are exciting times because the prospect is there for SA to build critical mass in range of mining-related activities which will provide an expanding set of well-paid, interesting job opportunities here in SA.

“I see the new Department of State Development playing a key role in making sure people have the right skills, that our universities can turn world-class research into commercial outcomes, that we retain our respected regulatory framework and our capacity to use geoscience in an imaginative way to boost the prospectivity of the state’s resources and that we facilitate new investment into the state.”

Dr Russell cited a number of projects and programs to show the growing momentum of the industry.

This included the petroleum sector onshore in the Cooper and Eromanga Basins and offshore in the Great Australian Bight.

He said BP Australia was opening an industry capability portal so South Australian businesses could identify specific opportunities likely to flow from BP’s Bight program.

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